Live Yin Yoga Offering - Samantha's Yoga Journey

I will be offering my Yin Yoga practice for Insight Timer Live -- this track is to share my yoga journey of experiences. I include the teachers/gurus from whom I have practiced and learned from. I share my learning on skeletal variation and why it changed how I practice.

If approved, I look forward to offering lives soon!

Thanks for coming here. Please reach out through reviews and messages. Seriously, I'd be excited to have mail.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to my audio space.

Today I am inquiring of anyone who's listening about how they feel about me sharing my yoga practice on Insight Timer.

So instead of being all up in my head about it,

I just thought I'll make an audio track that lets people know about me and where I'm at in my yoga camino,

My yoga journey,

And why I offer what I offer and just see if there's any interest there.

Insight Timer allows me to put in regular live events and every day as tattooed on my arm,

I am to move my body for 90 minutes.

And so I do that typically with a yin practice.

I do enjoy other forms of yoga and yoga that is more of a power yoga and hatha yoga and health postures.

But my favorite practice is in fact,

Yin yoga,

Which always connects me into my body,

Gives me an amazing awareness of what's going on,

Of what's really happening.

If my body can be the symptom of a challenge that I'm facing,

Or if in fact,

During that yin practice,

I discover in fact,

It's my mind,

Which can often get caught on the choo choo train of thought.

And yeah,

So anyways,

I'm asking and inquiring if you would enjoy joining me on my practice.

I recognize that my practice is generous in time.

90 minutes is not something that everyone offers to themselves for that practice.

But live events,

You can come and go.

So I really I encourage always just dropping in and checking it out.

So yes,

My influence and my teaching the lineages that I've learned from for yoga.

First,

My first yoga training was actually with Paul Grilley,

As someone that I had seen build a reputation for themselves through comments and references of other yoga teachers.

Just this guy,

Paul Grilley,

Paul Grilley.

And so I looked him up,

And he had and has online courses.

And I took his specific class on yin yoga,

But specifically because of skeletal variation.

That's something that really has informed my practice and his mantra of your hands and feet,

Depending on their posture will either help or hinder your ability to be in a posture.

So I don't know if you can resonate with ever being in yoga and being told,

You know,

Your toe has to point this way,

Or the heel has to be this way.

The hand must be in this and you visually look like this thing.

Well,

Like,

Taking his course,

Seeing skeletons,

So he uses real skeletons to show you just how different our bones are.

And depending on the shape of our bones and how they are together,

Will seriously change help or hinder how we look in,

In a yoga posture and asana,

But it will also determine how best we can target areas in our body.

So you know,

What feels really good to stretch my hips flexors,

Maybe doesn't feel the same way in your body.

And he breaks down yoga asanas postures into a family of,

Of,

Of variations,

If you will,

And just kind of helps you learn what is your best way for targeting your hamstring,

What is your best way,

You know,

And so I really appreciated that learning.

And I'm still practicing.

And then I got my 200 hour teacher training through a school in India called Siddhi Yoga.

And I was taught by five gurus in my in my training,

And it was completed online during COVID.

The reason why I became a teacher was not so that I could become a teacher,

It was because I couldn't do the practice by myself.

I've been practicing yoga for 15 years,

I broke my tailbone in labor with my daughter.

And from that moment on was then referred to pelvic floor therapy.

And nothing was really feeling good until then.

And all of the postures that they told me all of the stretches I needed to do on my own time,

I discovered later by coincidence,

Were in yin yoga.

So I actually went to a hot yoga class in my in my gym in in Waterloo,

Ontario.

And they have a hot,

Hot yoga.

And I went to a power yoga because you know,

That's I'm an athlete,

This is what I do,

I want to do it all the way I need to move my body,

I need to sweat,

I need to,

You know,

Burn calories and whatever,

Build muscle.

And the instructor tapped me on the on the shoulder during the class.

And it wasn't in a negative way,

Didn't feel poorly,

I didn't feel shamed or anything.

She just said,

You know,

I think you'd really like the yin class.

And she whispered it to me.

And I was like,

Yin,

Okay,

Cool.

So I then went to a yin class,

And I never left them.

I went three times a week to Nirala's practice.

And she is just so amazing.

She's so amazing.

And she runs retreats,

And yoga retreats in in Trinidad and Tobago,

Earth Splash.

Oh,

I don't think I'm supposed to endorse people.

But I just have to when there's a teacher that I've learned from,

I really feel like very strongly about just like letting people know who that was and how I learned that.

Because yeah,

It's,

It's pretty cool stuff.

So sorry,

If that's a no no.

But yeah,

Anyways,

Back to that.

I then took her training after I had COVID had ended.

She came back and she was teaching people her practice.

So I got to do another certification with her.

And it was just great.

And yin is my favorite practice.

And I really channel her,

My practice that I offer,

I really encourage an eyes closed practice so that it's a meditative experience.

And that it's also a really deep dive into the pranayama into the breath work.

When the eyes are closed,

And you're holding postures for you know,

Anywhere from two to five minutes,

Some you can hold longer on your own time.

You know,

You can hold yin postures 10-20 minutes and feel really great after.

But yeah,

I encourage an eyes closed class,

Which means that my cues,

So how I let you know what we're what we're transitioning into.

They're very mindful,

And they're very slow.

Because I am also doing the practice always alongside you,

Because we can't be in the same space,

The same classroom,

The same studio,

The same outdoor park,

I love outdoor yoga.

That means that I'm not actually looking or trying to help.

And my guidance,

I am just literally trying to help guide you into your next asana in the most mindful and smoothest way so that it feels like you are flowing,

You are flowing as fast as molasses,

Which is just a really cool state to be in.

And yeah,

It,

It becomes a big tool.

If you are new to meditation,

If you are trying to help,

You know,

Gain that awareness and control over the ability to control our thoughts,

And,

And how we experience them and how we react to them.

I tend to talk on and on,

And I don't ever want to bore anyone or feel like,

Feel like I'm taking up too much of your beautiful,

Precious time.

So with that,

I will come to a close and just let you know that the practice I will be offering in the first live event will be a yin practice.

And I'm also thinking about doing an offering of a chakra tuning.

So if you have any interest in that,

If you have anything that came up in for you,

Sparked anything in you,

Please don't hesitate to use Insight Timers,

Available tools like reviews and messages to reach out to me,

And I will see you in the next one.

Okay,

Bye.

Reviews

Very interesting! So glad you found yoga! I love Paul too…his skeletal descriptions really helped me understand my body and why I can’t go as far in poses as some people thought certain teachers were always trying to push me! I do Scarabelli yoga, but will come to your classes whenever I can and just go as slow as I can…though I do slow yoga and hold poses anyway! Thanks again and I look forward to your next class! And loved your concert too 😍🙏❤️ You are a natural yogi and we are very lucky to have you on here!💜💜😘

Thank you very much. It’s really interesting to hear about your experiences and inspirations. I’m sure any live sessions would be very well received and appreciated.

I’m interested in your Yin practice. It sounds lovely. Given the longer time, a weekend live class would be ideal. Thanks

Yes, please do it ❣️ I’ve been teaching yoga over 20 years and Yin is my treat for myself each week. I love being a student of Yin❤️

Thank you for sharing your story. I will be looking forward to your live yin classes . Namaste 🙏❤️

Thx for sharing your journey to Yin Yoga. I’ll look for more of your work.

Looking forward to joining you for some yin yoga. 🙏 Thank you very much 🦋🧡🌻

Thank you for sharing Samantha. I hope to be able to attend a live session sometime soon. Do you have any recommendations for a beginner with mobility issues? As in it’s difficult to get up and down from the floor 🙏🌈